West Point graduate to stand trial Tuesday for being gay
Published: June 29, 2009
Updated 4 months ago
U.S. Army Lieutenant Dan Choi, a graduate of the West Point military academy and an Arabic translator, will face a military panel on Tuesday which may discharge him for admitting he is gay.
His case was mentioned in a letter to President Barack Obama, signed by 77 Democratic members of Congress. They called the 10-year veteran an “exceptional” soldier. Some have even referred to him as “the de facto face of the movement to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
“I face a discharge tomorrow morning, simply for being honorable and telling who I am, in truth” he told CNN host John Roberts on Monday morning.
Should he be discharged, it would “strip away a lot of the veterans benefits, and that can include education, home loan, and even veterans hospital and medical benefits,” he added. “These benefits that I’ve earned being a combat veteran of the Iraq war.”
Choi, apart from his role as an Arabic Language Specialist in the Army, leads an organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender West Point alumni called Knights Out.
“Our OUT members include former West Point professors, Rhodes Scholars, decorated combat veterans from the Vietnam War, Iraq and Afghanistan, peacekeepers who served in Haiti and Bosnia, men and women from the first co-ed class (1980), an ordained minister, and many others [...]” the group’s Web site says.
Choi, in a letter to supporters on Friday, asked for signatures to a statement of support he hopes to present to the committee.
“As I learned at West Point, deception and lies poison a unit and cripple a fighting force,” he wrote. “That’s why more than 70 of my fellow West Point graduates have also come out of the closet to join Knights Out, the organization I co-founded to build support for the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’.
“The only way we will eventually overturn ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is by speaking up together. You can help me fight back right now by adding your name to my statement of support. On Tuesday morning, I will bring your signature–and thousands of others–to my trial as a demonstration of your collective support.”
This video is from CNN’s American Morning, broadcast June 29, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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George W. Bush, a draft-dodger, who went AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard his last year of “service” gets out of a court-martial and dishonorable discharge thanks to his daddy’s connections and influence, got an honorable discharge while a real vet, who served his country voluntarily during a time of war, faces dishonorable discharge simply for being born homosexual.
This is what shames us as a country.
Americans continually PROVE to be shameless, irrational and idiotic.
That’s constantly painted as “patriotism”.
Another Arabic translator. Notice a pattern?
yup, they would rather “tell us” what the Arabs say rather than actually translate it.
That is why you get quotes like “Death to Israel” when in reality they said “down with israel”. And when the say “wipe them off the map” they mean the racist Zionist’s, not your run of the mill Jewish person.
Yeah I see the pattern.
notoriouskelly, you are mentally sick.
Bet you wouldn’t say those words on the streets, coward!
Grow an irony sensor.
grow a brain …
GIVE HIM THE CHAIR! THE CHAIR!!
Have you mom make you another big plate hot pockets to add to your already slobish brain malfunction. And puts some pants on over those 2 week old “are those underpants” geeez … .. you’re leaving skid marks and stinking up the place with the cowardly drive by angry troll comments and the fake multiple screen names.
Better yet, give everybody
AN ENEMA!
AN ENEMA!
AN ENEMA of the people!
he’s pretty charismatic, I hope he says something profound at his discharge hearing, and I hope there’s good press coverage of this
this is a sad story, but what ever came of that other guy, that career military pilot that was a $25 million dollar weapon they ended up firing for being gay, they should hire his ass for the day to be on the talk shows commenting on the coverage of the discharge hearing
Well some folks find it tough to give up their prejudices because of fear which is the basis of all prejudice really. Lt. Choi has a record of service to our country that is nothing short of fantastic!!!There could be no better spokesperson for the ending of discrimination in the military on the basis of sexual orientation.Thanks to Lt Choi for his service to his country and thanks to Raw Story for running the story.
“Lt. Choi has a record of service to our country that is nothing short of fantastic!!!” - That’s like, totally fabulous, but serving the armed forced is serving murder, not serving any nation. A 16 year old working at McDonalds serves our nation more than this low-life piece of shit ever did.
So “satanic” you make us laugh, LOL.
I see that no one here is mentioning savior Obama NOT having fulfilled one of his campaign LIES that he would overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Like hell he will. It’s more of that “change we can believe in” manure that the Suckers allowed themselves to fall for.
Why has no one mentioned another campaign promise/LIE broken? Afraid to be critical of the “Dem Team” savior? Or will one of the Obamabots come forth with the usual “you have to give him TIME” pabulum? Time to do what? He’s the president. He’s the top guy. What does he need “time” to do? Exactly how much TIME would it take to overturn “Don’t Ask….” The man can’t multi-task and do more than one thing at a time like the rest of us have to do? Pathetic.
Actually, I’ve made that statement from the stage.
Funny that it was deleted since both words were 60% asterisks.
Just goes to show what sissies we are.
Wonderful!
Sounds just like he could be going up before a bunch of mollahs in Tehran.
I would rather have this guy in my foxhole any time before that scumbag GW Bush. Choi didn’t run.
Wow, an excpetional soldier. 10 year veteran, wow. Lets all give him a round of aupplause for all the pain and suffering he’s helped cause. Give me a break, this fucking soldier can go burn in hell and die for all I care. Discharge him and let him get a real fucking job, fucking loser.
And for those of you who would compare the ilk of George Bush and his draft dodging friends to those that dodged to not be a part of a murder machine, fuck you too. I have more respect for somone who refuses to take part in mass murder than someone who’s gung-ho about killing, raping and destroying.
Our freedom has never for a moment hinged on any of the wars these psycho’s half-tards sign up to wage, so again, fuck the fucking troops, burn in hell mother fuckers.
You’re f*cking HILAAAAAAAAARIOUS!
what sh*t are you smoking?
The ilk of George Bush and his draft dodging friends CREATED
a MURDER MACHINE for oil and gas fields conquest in Iraq,
you dumb-arsed fool.
That the PTB (powers that be) feel they need to kick him out of the military is sad. That they will then refuse to pay him the benefits that he has earned in terms of pension, education, medical and all the rest is beyond disgusting. The “people” that do that need to serve jail time. I cannot feel comfortable with slime like that being responsible for my defense.